Petition to lift breed-specific ban in Salina fails

An effort to lift a dog breed-specific ban in Salina has hit a roadblock. Salinans Against BSL (Breed Specific Language) has been working for years to lift the breed-specific ban. Last week, a petition containing 1,814 signatures requiring the city to either repeal or modify the ban was delivered to the Saline County Election Office. Under Kansas Law, petitions must have the signatures of at least 25% of registered voters who voted in the last municipal election. The city says that of 1,814 signatures, only 1,369 were accepted by the Saline County Election Office, which fell below the 25% requirement. The city says the election office found that 445 of the petition signatures were from unregistered voters, names that didn’t match signatures, signatures of people with canceled voter registrations, and those who live in the wrong districts. The final tally left the petition just 22 signatures short of passing. Under state law, the petitioner can’t submit additional signatures to make up for the shortfall.
Source: KSNT 27 News

info2024-10-02T09:28:22-05:00October 2, 2024|News|

Wamego may close burn pile to non-residents

The City of Wamego’s burn pile has always been intended for city resident use only, however city officials have never enforced the rule and county residents have been allowed to haul debris there. That may soon change. Wamego City Manager Stacie Eichem on Monday informed the Pottawatomie County Commissioners maintaining the burn site has become a bigger job than what current city staff can manage. If the city is to allow county residents to continue to use the site as they have been, a full time employee will need to be hired. Wamego City Commissioners offered to leave the burn site operation “as-is” if Pottawatomie County would contribute $35,000 to hire someone to operate the burn site as it is currently being operated. Otherwise, the city will need to enforce the ordinance and no longer allow anyone outside of the city to use the site.
Source: themercury.com

info2024-10-02T09:26:48-05:00October 2, 2024|News|

Andover modifies policy on financial guarantees, bond terms to make suburb more ‘developer friendly’

Andover is attempting to make development easier and faster for developers. This month, the city of Andover’s Council unanimously approved changes to its policy on public infrastructure financing for developments up for special assessments. The changes will reduce the financial guarantee requirements of developers and modify bond servicing terms for the city — among other things. Special assessment petitions are methods utilized by cities to finance public infrastructure improvements — such as streets, sidewalks, storm drainage, sanitary sewer, water and traffic control signals — by charging the cost directly to the properties benefiting from the improvements. The method allows the costs to be shared by developers and property owners in the district that is benefitting from the development.
Source: Wichita Business Journal

info2024-10-02T09:25:20-05:00October 2, 2024|News|

Municipal Bond Trends for September 30, 2024

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Henry Schmidt2024-10-01T09:09:16-05:00October 1, 2024|News|

Petition to repeal Salina’s pit bull ban falls short of goal

A petition to force the Salina City Commission to take some kind of action on the current pit bull ban has been rejected…. ‘Of the 1,814 signatures submitted, only 1,369 were accepted… This means the petition fell short by 22 of the required number of signatures.
Source: Salina Journal

info2024-10-01T07:45:09-05:00October 1, 2024|News|

Municipal Bond Trends for September 27, 2024

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of AA rated bond trades reported to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board’s EMMA® system. Every issuer’s credit is different, and other financing sources may be available. To obtain comprehensive Financial Advisory services for your local government, contact your Ranson Financial Municipal Advisor, Larry Kleeman, or Henry Schmidt.

Henry Schmidt2024-09-30T09:29:24-05:00September 30, 2024|News|

Grant will help study hunger problem

As part of the ongoing process of working to improve living in rural Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly recently announced 14 grant recipients of the Rural Champions program. One of those recipients is Cowley County, where the monies will be used to develop strategies to combat hunger. This is the second year that the state, through its Office of Rural Prosperity, has awarded the Rural Champion grants to organizations within counties with fewer than 40,000 population. An application for Cowley County last year was unsuccessful. This time, though, the state is awarding the county through the Legacy Community Foundation one-year wage stipend of $20,800 along with training and resources provided for the person chosen to be the Rural Champion. The community will receive up to $25,000 at the end of the research and preparation year to fund the implementation phase. The grant dovetails with a similar effort to combat food insecurity. In July, RISE Cowley received a $55,000 grant per year for three years from the Kansas Food Action Network. That grant will enable coalitions such as RISE Cowley to look at the policies, systems and environmental barriers to food security.
Source: Cowley CourierTraveler

info2024-09-30T09:14:49-05:00September 30, 2024|News|

No Wile E. Coyote: Watch Johnson County animal officer save coyote tangled in wire fence

On Sept. 24, Deputy Dwayne Shoop, a former Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy turned animal control officer, was called to wrangle the American jackal that had been stuck for several hours near West 135th Street and South Spoon Creek Road. Video of the encounter was posted by the sheriff’s office on social media. “It’s typical,” the deputy later said about getting a call regarding a coyote. After a call from the property owner, Shoop said he came upon the coyote that was hanging by its left leg in the fence. The coyote had a bewildered face with wide eyes and an open mouth as the deputy cut its left leg out of the wire. The animal left the situation with a dislocated hip and severed tendon and was taken to Operation Wildlife for treatment, a nonprofit which provides rehabilitation and veterinary services to injured and orphaned wild animals.
Source: KC Star Local News

info2024-09-30T09:13:38-05:00September 30, 2024|News|

City to discuss $10 million upgrades to Sunrise, Sunset cemeteries

Some of the proposed upgrades to Sunrise Cemetery include the construction of a new shop and office, renovating the existing shop, paving a section of the maintenance lot and fencing the maintenance yard. At Sunset Cemetery, upgrades could include building a new joint maintenance shop with Sunset Zoo, installing a new irrigation system, adding columbaria, making storm drainage and utility improvements, reconstructing cemetery roads, improving accessible sidewalks at the entry and Carriage House and making repairs to the memorial arc.
Source: 1350 KMAN

info2024-09-30T09:12:22-05:00September 30, 2024|News|

What the COVID surge looks like for Butler County

Just one year and four months after the COVID-19 Pandemic has ended, the virus is now a regular visitor for cold and flu season. With health professionals declaring a surge in COVID-19 cases, Butler County is staying below alarming rates of positive testing, which gives medical personnel great hope of no return to pandemic level emergency. The COVID-19 Pandemic was declared as “over” by the World Health Organization, (WHO), on May 5, 2023. This insinuated that the virus is no longer a public health emergency, allowing health and medical professionals to only monitor positive cases with no other restrictions. The WHO was able to declare such a statement due to overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 virus infections had decreased significantly, and the virus is no longer spreading at a rapid rate.
Source: Andover American

info2024-09-30T09:11:34-05:00September 30, 2024|News|